Murder-suicide in Norristown

Posted: December 30, 2008

A Bridgeport man jumped off a bridge and decapitated himself after apparently strangling his girlfriend in his apartment, according to police officials and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

James Goeke, 43, wrapped a rope around his neck and attached it to his parked minivan before leaping from the Dannehower Bridge shortly before 2 p.m. Saturday, officials said.

Later, when detectives went to his apartment in the 200 block of Ross Road, they smelled the stench of a dead body. Inside, they found the naked corpse of a woman they identified as Michelle Kavenaugh, 42.

The victim was lying on her back under a blanket in the bedroom, with a cloth robe belt around her neck, officials said.

District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said that it appeared Kavenaugh was strangled during a consensual sexual encounter, the Associated Press reported.

On a computer table in the apartment living room investigators found a handwritten note that said, "I'm sorry. It was an accident. It was too late to save her. I'm going to join her now." It was signed "James Goeke."